Offaly manager Emmet McDonnell has welcomed the first-round Qualifier date with Tyrone.

The Faithful County appear to have drawn the short straw as they have to take on the Red Hands over the last weekend of June but McDonnell sees it as a challenge to be embraced:

"Playing Tyrone is something completely different for us," he points out in The Irish Independent.

"Our players would have grown up watching them playing in Croke Park so getting an opportunity now to pit themselves against them is a great challenge.

"A bad draw for us would have been something like Limerick or Tipperary, who we beat in the last round of the league.

"The immediate reaction of our players is actually great excitement at the prospect of playing Tyrone.

"We will have nothing to lose, there will be absolutely no pressure on us and our supporters are always great so we'd be hopeful of getting a big crowd there to get behind us." Tweet

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